Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Meeting of the minds

Got a call yesterday from Carl Schlemowitz of Vicious Cycles asking if I was up for a ride. Sort of an unspoken rule amongst the brotherhood that you do not refuse an offer to ride, especially after he came all the way from New York and had the bad fortune to have just spent the weekend at the Sea Otter. So me, Carl, Curtis Inglis, Jeremy Sycip, Chris Wells, and Rob Holt met at Annadel for some action. After what was a rather quick start to the ride, I commented to Rob that maybe our pace was being pushed by the fact that we were entertaining a guest. Nothing worse for a visiting comrade than having to put up with a bunch of duffers, right? So Chris and Curtis pushed at the front until it looked like Carl was having so much fun his face was going to explode. I'm sure the 93' heat didn't help. Mind you, my conversation on the way up was limited to one word answers and head nods, so it wasn't just Carl getting the treatment. After Chris took a nice digger and broke his seat, we settled into a more leisurely pace. Until the next singletrack.

I'm ashamed to admit that the last time I rode Annadel, which is a 30 minute drive, was at the SSWC fun ride last August. Knowing that some people would give up perfectly functioning body parts to live that close to something so good makes me feel unworthy. Anyhow, I got my money's worth today. If you get up this way, make sure you ride Annadel. And do it quick, because it's not even May and it's already dusty.

After the ride we went over to Jeremy's mid-century marvel and looked at his cute kids and his liquor cabinet. Mostly his liquor cabinet.

None of us stepped up for a high-ball at 2pm. Something about, "I'm an adult", and, "I have things to do later". If not for the peer pressure I'm sure I would be sprawled out up there at this moment with Jeremy's kids in the kiddie pool.

We topped off the day with giant burritos and as we parted, each of us claimed to be heading into work . I actually did for a bit. Curtis mumbled something about working twice as hard the next day, which sounds like a good plan except that I'm naturally lazy. All said, I'm glad I made the time for the ride. It's not often that I get to ride with these guys and having an owner of a big-time bike company (he actually has employees) along made it even sweeter. Thanks Carl, and have a great trip home. And remember to make sure you tell your friends how bad we made you suffer. We have reps to uphold.